Having gone into business with $50,000 in the stock market, they are already targeting the American market

With a $50,000 Pierre-Péladeau scholarship, two management graduates from UQAM succeeded in creating their company Recharge Véhicule Électrique (RVE) which today targets the American market with its energy management system for vehicles electricity for multi-unit homes thanks to $10 million in financing.

The company founded in 2015 by David Corbeil and his sister Marie-Pier allows its users to have an intelligent charging solution.

They encounter several pitfalls when they want to install a charging station for their new car in buildings with several properties.

“With condominium associations, it’s often an obstacle course. They must convince other owners of the value of installing a terminal, explains RVE’s chief financial officer, Frédéric Boucher. Once this is done, our technology allows a tenant to connect to their electrical panel without causing an overload.”

The RVE system is placed near the meters in the electrical room.

“If your washer and dryer are running at the same time as you have a turkey in the oven, you are using 80% of your electrical capacity,” adds Mr. Boucher. Your terminal will go into load shedding mode for 15 minutes, but this will not affect your car’s charging cycle.”

Taking on Uncle Sam

After having sold 30,000 systems in Quebec, half of which to residential customers, RVE wants to attack the American market. An operation possible thanks to the financing of nearly $10 million that the company has obtained in recent months.

In addition to a $2.7 million grant from the provincial government in May, RVE received another boost earlier this month.

Investissement Québec, Fondaction and Exportation Développement Canada (EDC) became shareholders by donating $2 million each. And the Quebec government invested another amount of around $2 million.

Frédéric Boucher, Chief Financial Officer of RVE, is excited about the expansion of his company in the United States.

Courtesy RVE

“This will allow us to improve our technology and our algorithms,” mentions Frédéric Boucher. The arrival of the three shareholders will help us expand in the United States in the coming years.”

RVE will put the California and East Coast markets at the top of its list. Why California? The population has the same incentives for purchasing an electric vehicle as in Quebec. Politicians are also targeting the elimination of gasoline vehicles by 2030.

“We are in the process of setting up our sales teams. We have signed agreements with several large American distributors. We need to tour the branches of these companies and make our product known to electricians. Our growth will go through this.”

To change the mentalities

In the coming years, the number of electrical terminal installations will increase significantly. Electricians will have a key role in this operation through the choice of their materials.

“They often have the reflex to change the panels to increase the capacity of the electrical rooms or residences,” explains Frédéric Boucher. If you put a 200 amp box at each installation, it will end up having an impact for Hydro-Québec.

“This means that we will have to expand our dams and wind farms more quickly. This is not necessary with our technology which adapts to the electrical capacity in place.”

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David Corbeil, graduate in business administration fromSchool of Management Sciences (ESG UQAM), and his sister Marie-Pier won the Pierre-Péladeau Scholarship worth $50,000 to start their business Electric Vehicle Chargingin 2015. Awarded by Quebecor, the Pierre-Péladeau scholarships aim to promote business creation among Quebec university students.